Whatever happens policy

[petethemanc]

Ok, so two years ago i bought a laptop from pc world, ive enver had any problems or needed to take it in for a repair as i always take good care of any goods purchased. But recently a shelf fell and my V+ box fell on to the laptop, so i rang the tech guys and arranged for a pickup. The very next day the courier arrived and collected my laptop. I gave them 5 days before ringing and asking for an update, i was told that it had been booked in with an engineer and that was all they knew so far. Agin i rang the next day for an update and was told that the laptop was being tested and i could ring back the next day for an update. So again i rang up and was told there was no new information other than my laptop was in the final testing stage. They ahd my laptop a total of 12 days, and today the courier arrived. He gave me my laptop and the power cable and also 2 pieces of paper. It wasnt until i read the paper that i realised that my laptop had not been repaired and they said the following.

 

Dear Mr x

 

Your LAPTOPas detailed above is being returned to you unrepaired.

During the inspection carried out by our technician, we have found what we consider to be unexplained damage.

In circumstances such as this we refer the issue to the coverplan claims investigation department.

If you are dissatisfied with our findings or you ahve further information to support your accidental damage claim then please do so in writing to xxxx

 

Also the damage report was as follows.

 

We find that there could be mis-use/neglect. We can see that the unit has a broken base cover (purely cosmetical and doesnt affect the laptop) and the lcd unit is badly bowed. We believe this damage would ahve been caused by mis-use or neglect. ( i hasten to add the spelling mistakes throughout the letter)

 

Now, i several items purchased by the dixon group such as another laptop, a fridge freezer, a HDTV a surround sound system a dyson hoover and a tumble dryer and i have whatever happens cover. In the whole time i have NEVER had any item in for repair which shows i do take as much care as possible with products i purchase. I need an internet connection for my business and i am losing money when i shouldnt be. It is getting to the point where i am going to have to buy another laptop whilst continuing with this lot of thieves. What i would like to know is what are the chances of getting a replacement laptop, and if i do purchase another one (certainly not from this group) can i get the costs reinbursed in the event that they do decide i should get a replacement.

 

Thank you

[ForestChav]

I wouldn't necessarily be taking the thieves attitude with them when you want them to fix your machine. Your machine is covered for accidental damage, which is damage caused unintentionally but not by a manufacturing fault, but by the same token they have to take precautions against people smashing their laptop down the stairs in order to get a new one. If they examine the machine and the damage doesn't look consistent with the reported accident (this probably depends more on how much the agent logs when he/she books the repair than what you actually said) then obviously this is going to make it look more wilful damage than accidental.

 

I'm guessing the bottom line is that you want them to fix it under the warranty - so you're going to need to provide them with the supporting evidence they want. If the box fell on it from a height (indeed, they might not know that) then provide photos/description of the relative positions? They're wanting this in writing which is what you should really do anyway. Contact them, there's nothing you've lost so far because they've already made the decision not to repair it.

 

As for your business - i'm guessing you have the domestic coverplan because the business policy has loan equipment as an entitlement (or did, when I worked for DSG) and personally I wouldn't recommend running a business off a single machine anyway - it is foolish to have anything other than multiple machines with frequent, regular backups made, preferably kept in a fireproof (or better still, offsite) location because business data is practically priceless, and not having contingency for breakdown of equipment is pretty foolish.

 

Quite frankly it's a bit wrong (no idea what options were made available to you at sale or if you said it was a business machine) to insure a business machine on a domestic policy (where such use is not considered essential) when a business policy also exists (where the use is) - they won't really care about having to buy another machine, or reimbursing your costs - it's probably in the small print of your policy saying this...

[petethemanc]

Hello and thanks for the reply, i do like to look at both sides of the story as well. But, when i spoke to the tech guys help line staff they did check up the history of repairs of items i purchased......which there were none. This in itself surely must show that i do not have a habit of breaking any products i have purchased. And secondly, they did not ask what had happened to the machine, they simply asked "will it turn on".

And thirdly, im sorry as i know you will not agree, but ANY insurance company and banks are the biggest legal thieves without question, not the store but the insurance company itself. If they werent then we wouldnt have so many forums with their antics.

I simply want a machine that works,and i have paid a premium to ensure if it does break then it will be repaired.And as for my business, well i did not have the business when i purchased the laptop. Im not a mjor corporation only a small one man band so obviously i can not have high costs with multiple machines. Surely they must look at each customers history before passing judgement. Just as they do for credit.

[ForestChav]

Hello and thanks for the reply, i do like to look at both sides of the story as well.

I did leave DSG about 3 years ago but at least I do have knowledge of how this kind of thing works (normally had to pick up the pieces of someone being incompetent and messing it up rather than doing what I liked- fixing PCs!)... well, that's providing they didnt change much.

But, when i spoke to the tech guys help line staff they did check up the history of repairs of items i purchased......which there were none. This in itself surely must show that i do not have a habit of breaking any products i have purchased.

Well yeah, but past performance on it doesn't mean you won't do it at some point, otherwise by that logic no-one would have done it ever because they hadn't done it before. That's not to say I'm not with you - a STB falling from a height is surely quite a lot of momentum and that could cause a laptop a lot of damage depending on how it fell on it.

And secondly, they did not ask what had happened to the machine, they simply asked "will it turn on".

Poor diags from the call agent - if something as heavy has fell on it they shouldn't be asking you to turn it on anyway (it could be dangerous) and should be logging details of how it occurred. So it depends what you actually said happened to it and what they logged - I would be sceptical that call was logged properly. But hey, since Capita took over it's all been about stats and answering calls quickly rather than delivering a decent service and I don't expect that to change until DSG bring it back in-house (which should be imminent now, because their contract was almost up).

And thirdly, im sorry as i know you will not agree, but ANY insurance company and banks are the biggest legal thieves without question, not the store but the insurance company itself. If they werent then we wouldnt have so many forums with their antics.

Maybe I do agree, but calling them thieves isn't going to help get your laptop fixed (Y)

I simply want a machine that works,and i have paid a premium to ensure if it does break then it will be repaired.

Well, yes, but you can see how there's a dividing line between accidental and wilful damage.

And as for my business, well i did not have the business when i purchased the laptop.

fair enough...

Im not a mjor corporation only a small one man band so obviously i can not have high costs with multiple machines.

Yeah, guess so - even so, it's important to see the possibility of a machine breaking (for whatever reason) or losing data and mitigating the risk, you obviously see that now, so I'm not going to pressgang you. But I'm *not* running a business and not especially loaded either (tech, just done a degree course he's had to fund) and I have three machines (laptop, desktop and a server)... It all depends. I'd rather not lose important data.

Surely they must look at each customers history before passing judgement. Just as they do for credit.

Not sure they do, I think it's down to asking if they want it and hard selling. Not that I really have much experience of that area.

[H20-H20]

Strangely enough a week or 2 ago i saw a laptop at the workshop that came in for the very reason stated in this post.

 

The laptop was in 2 pieces & yes it was rejected under the grounds that the damage was inconsistent.

 

There is an appeals process, but you can only do it by writing to the address on the report you recieved with you're laptop.

 

I do agree with Forestchav, The callcentre do not log jobs properly, so it does cause problems with understanding what has been done to the laptops.

[labrat]

would recomend writing put as much detail as possible and ask that they re-assess the laptop

 

just out of curiosity did you get a green sheet back with it, and if so what have they put in the symptoms field on that? because the symptoms is whats been writen at the call center not at the workshop

[petethemanc]

would recomend writing put as much detail as possible and ask that they re-assess the laptop

 

just out of curiosity did you get a green sheet back with it, and if so what have they put in the symptoms field on that? because the symptoms is whats been writen at the call center not at the workshop

 

No green sheet at all, just the sheets mentioned. I have however done as forrestchav suggested and taken pictures of the locations of the items and the damage caused with an in depth explanation of what happened. Hopefully this should get the matter resolved.

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/j0gwfa.png

http://i41.tinypic.com/24osraa.png

 

Here are the pictures taken.

[ForestChav]

Personally I'd expect a V+ box falling on a laptop from that height to end with both in a bad way... :o

[petethemanc]

Personally I'd expect a V+ box falling on a laptop from that height to end with both in a bad way... :o

 

It did mate, the v+ box is ruined and the laptop didnt fair much better, but that is exactly what has happened, so i guess i put that to them without going through a call center and an agaent who probably did not log the call correctly and see what they say.

[ForestChav]

It did mate, the v+ box is ruined and the laptop didnt fair much better, but that is exactly what has happened, so i guess i put that to them without going through a call center and an agaent who probably did not log the call correctly and see what they say.

Which (notwithstanding the padding) was my initial advice

[H20-H20]

You must send all the information to Gary Perriment as written on the Rejection Report. The address is on there, The Picture you uploaded & the explanation you given I believe is sufficient.

 

Goodluck

[petethemanc]

Everything was sent special delivery, so i will post back as soon as i have any news.

[petethemanc]

I said i would post an update, today i received vouchers for a new laptop. Now i bought the original laptop 2 years ago fro £650, and the vouchers i received were for £600 so not to bad a result i would say. I took the advice given and also added that my contents insurance informed me that i am entitled to legal assistance included in my policy.

[H20-H20]

Nice One

[labrat]

well done mate after seeing some of the laptops that go through i would say they do ussually find it hard to judge and sometimes do reject claims, id say they are ussually reasonable if they get a good explanation of how it happens and i think in your case the pictures helped as they probably thought maybe a foot high shelf for the v box

[xsparklex]

I am having sam trouble with coverplan

 

I have a laptop with pc world coverplan & they refused to fix my laptop thay say because its been abused which was not the case i tripped on my sons toy on top off stairs & laptop went flying down & screen came apart from main unit

i have appealed this decison nothing is being down anyone what i can do to get my laptop repaired?

[ForestChav]

Like I originally said.

 

You need to appeal and provide them enough information to convince them that the damage was accidental, as opposed to you just throwing it down the stairs in order to get a new machine.

 

Your policy covers accidental damage not malicious damage and if they inspect the unit and believe it to be the latter, you need to show that it was not the case. As I said in an earlier post, you don't know precisely what information the call centre noted when you phoned - the actual symptoms they can physically send on the job is quite small and the rest is down to their call notes which may or may not be seen - not your problem, admittedly, but it may influence it if they look in the notes and see nothing at all along with a laptop which (with no further information) looks like it was thrown downstairs.

[xsparklex]

just had a letter back saying they wont fix it i sent a letter telling them how it happened what next throw laptop in bin

[ForestChav]

What did you tell them? Did you include any photos or supporting evidence?

[petethemanc]

As forestchav says, add some supporting evidence. They are probably inundated with claims and i suspect a fair few are fraudulent. I found them more than reasonable once i took the time to explain exactly what had happened and provided photo evidence. A picture speaks a thousand words as they say.

[labrat]

have seen alot of laptops that get refused and can vouch for the fact that some are fraudulent.

 

seen a demonstration of someone jumping on a laptop 3/4 times then showing how it wasnt as badly damaged as one the customer reconded had been "tripped over"